Islam and Sufism

Sufism in the light of Islam

Word Sufism or Sufi is said to have two origins, “Safaa” meaning purity, fairness, clarity while “Suff” means wool in Arabic. It also refers to the gathering of people. As people use to gather and praise Allah.

Historical origin of Sufism

Marshall Hodgson, A world historian said that when muslims started their conquest and Islam spread rapidly, especially in Great Syria and Egypt many Christian monks and hermits used to practice mysticism and it inspired and influenced many practices of muslims Sufis. (Hodgson, 1958) it was then mainly mysticism formed its shape and its roots in Islam. Sufism or Islamic mysticism is said to find its way in Islam during the period of Umayyad’s Caliphate in 8^th century CE. Its popularity and followership grew in Abbasid’s rule. Rashid Ahmad Jullundhry explaining the origin of Sufism, states that according to famous Sufi poet and historian Mawlana Jami, The first person to be called a Sufi (Islamic mystic) was Abd-Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah who died in 716 CE. (Jullundhry, 2010)

Ideological aspects of Sufism

In the early days of Sufism, it was an innocent idea of cleansing one’s inner self. Living a simple life restraining from worldly luxuries, sacrificing one’s needs and pleasures, not getting too much attach to this world in the hopes of attaining Allah’s pleasure while keeping their actions within the limits of Islam. It is that which forms the basis of Tasawwuf, an essential part of Sufism. Tasawwuf is what governs the internal spirituality and It cleanses one inner self from short comings and internal impurities. It was their belief that in order to become a good Sufi one has to become a good Muslim as well. Imam Shafi had the opinion that “If a person exercised Sufism (tasawwuff) at the beginning of the day, and doesn’t come at Zohar except an Idiot.” (Hijazi, n.d.) . When Islam spread through the Syria, Rome, Persia and Egypt, Muslims were introduced to the concept of mysticism of Christianity, who got this concept from ancient Greeks. According to them “Mysticism means to unite or becoming one with Ultimate reality (The God) which can be achieved via subjective experiences (such as intuition or insight). (Merkur, 2015). This belief was incorporated by Muslim Sufis in Sufism. They believed that within every human being there is a portion of God i.e. the soul. Which is divine and our only purpose in life is to re-unite with the divine. So in order to re-unite their soul with their Lord they need to elevate their souls and for that they started performing Zikr, Asceticism (Seclusion) and other acts of worships. In that regards the one person who attains highest level of spirituality becomes “Insan-e-Kamil” (The Perfect Man). He leads the hierarchy of Sufi order and he is called “Qutb.” He establishes divine and spiritual connection with God. He is infallible and free from errors.

Deviance from Islam:

Sufism had some acceptable elements which can be allowed and are encouraged in Islam such as not being too much attached to this life as Prophet (ﷺ) said “The world is a prison-house for a believer and Paradise for a non-believer.” (Muslim:2956) But there are some aspects which not only differ from the teachings from Islam but destroy many aspects of Tawheed.

1-Being One with the creator (Wahdat ul Wujood): According to this doctrine everything is One, meaning everything is Allah and Allah is everything. So if everything is Allah then that means worshiping humans is same as worshiping God. So this destroys Tawheed Al Ibahah. Whereas it is clear from Quran Allah says “…There is nothing like onto Him…” (Quran 42:11) clearly states that nothing in any shape or form, real or imaginative is like Him. Hence proving that Allah and His creation are two separate entities

2-Denial of Allah’s attributes: They deny Allah’s attributes such as having face, hand, sight etc. on the reason that these are human’s attributes so God can’t have these attributes. So this in turn destroys Tawheed Al Asma-was Siffat. However our belief is that as Allah states in Quran “Those who pledge obedience to you are, in fact, pledging obedience to God. The hands of God are above their hands…” (Quran 48:10) proving that Allah have hands but they are beyond our comprehension.    

3-Believing in the abilities of Qutb:

               a)    They believe that Qutbs are infallible and they are perfect.

Prophet (ﷺ) said “Every son of Adam sins and the best of those who sin are those who repent.”(Tirmidhi:2499) Meaning every human sins. Only Prophets were free from sins and that is because Allah corrected their mistakes Himself. Also only Allah is Perfect.

              b)    Qutbs can answer the call and solve the problems of their murids (novice).

This belief particularly destroys the aspects of Tawheed Al Ibadah. As we are only supposed to ask Allah for help and our hopes should be only from Him. Allah says in Quran “Indeed those who you call upon beside Allah are servants like you”(Quran 7:194)

4-Innovations (Bid’ah): Allah completed Islam during the time of prophet (ﷺ) if there was to be anything to be added Allah would have told prophet ﷺ to do so. They innovated the ways of doing Zikr, whirling; seclusions for long period of time etc. are innovations having no basis in Islam.

Prophet model of belief and worship

Allah said in Quran to follow the Prophet ﷺ “…obey Allah and obey the Messenger…” (Quran 4:59). Prophet ﷺ provide for us the best example on how to correctly follow Islam. He ﷺ taught us self-control and also gave us the means of controlling our Nafs. He ﷺ was moderate in his ﷺ every action even in his ﷺ worship. He ﷺ use to socialize as well as he ﷺ use to do Itikaf (seclusion) during Ramadan. Prophet ﷺ worshipped Allah by obeying His every command.   

Conclusion

Modern day Sufism demolish the fundamentals of tawheed which results in ultimate failure. We should live humbly, for the sake of Allah maintaining unity in every aspect of tawheed. We should worship Allah by following the way of Prophet ﷺ We should try our best to stay away from innovations and our hopes and prayers should always be directed towards Him.      

Bibliography

Gellman, J., 2014. Mysticism. In: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. s.l.:http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/mysticism.

Hijazi, Y., n.d. Sufism: Its Origin. [Online] 

Available at: http://www.calltoislam.com/all_articles/Deviant%20sects/Origins%20of%20Sufism.pdf

[Accessed 28 October 2015].

Hodgson, M. G. S., 1958. The Venture of Islam, Volume 1: The Classical Age of Islam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Jullundhry, R. A., 2010. Sufi Tafsir. In: Qur'anic Exegesis in Classical Literature. New Westminster: The Other Press, p. 56.

Masud-ul-Hasan, 1982. Hadrat Abu Bakr, Umar, Usman, Ali (ra) 4 Vol. Set. Lahore: Islamic Publications.

Merkur, D., 2015. Mysticism. [Online] 

Available at: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mysticism

[Accessed 28 October 2015].